Dan Hodges is a former Labour Party and GMB trade union official, and has managed numerous independent political campaigns. He writes about Labour with tribal loyalty and without reservation. You can read Dan's recent work here

Collusion and lies: the shocking real story of Plebgate

This morning the police are again in the dock. The Home Secretary has announced a formal public inquiry into the revelation a secret undercover police unit used covert surveillance against the Stephen Lawrence family in the months leading up the Macpherson hearings. The response of Stephen Lawrence’s mother, as reported on the front page of the Times this morning, is blunt. “You can’t trust the police,” she says.

Unpalatable though it may be, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to disagree with that conclusion. While many individual officers continue to serve the public with courage and integrity, it’s no longer possible to trust a word the police service – corporately – says.

As some people maybe aware, I’m currently writing a book on the Plebgate affair. Yesterday, while doing research for that book I came across fresh information – fresh to me at any rate – that basically destroys any further doubts about whether serving police officers colluded to ensure a democratically elected government minister, the chief whip Andrew Mitchell, was removed from his job.

You’ll recall that last year the Crown Prosecution Service announced that after a lengthy investigation charges would be brought against a single officer over the incident. That was PC Keith Wallis, who was jailed for a year after it emerged he falsified an email in which he claimed to have witnessed the altercation outside the gates of Downing Street, even though he hadn’t even been anywhere near at the time.

The CPS stated there was no evidence of a “conspiracy” involving other officers. Wallis was presented as a “lone wolf” who had brought the police into disrepute, but had essentially done so independently.

Then last month a second officer, PC James Glanville was dismissed from the Met for gross misconduct. He had passed information about the incident to the Sun. Again, he was described as a “lone wolf”, who had essentially acted independently.

However, an additional three other officers are currently facing misconduct charges over the incident. Again, because of the CPS ruling about there being no evidence of a conspiracy, I had been working on the assumption they were essentially peripheral to the incident. Yesterday I found out that is not the case.

One of the officers was actually present at the gate at the time of the confrontation. Although this officer did not hear the altercation between Andrew Mitchell and PC Toby Rowlands, Metropolitan Police officers have, I am told, uncovered evidence that it was this officer who obtained a copy of the infamous email from PC Rowlands to his superiors alleging Mitchell had used the words “f*****g plebs”, and passed it to PC Glanville, who in turn passed it to the Sun. I’m told the officer is also charged with lying about this fact when initially interviewed.

A second officer is facing gross misconduct charges because he initially denied having any contact with PC Keith Wallis when interviewed by officers investigating the Wallis email. The Metropolitan Police then uncovered evidence their colleague had in fact had “extensive” contact with him.

The charges against the third officer are the most amazing. The Metropolitan Police has uncovered evidence that this officer – who was not present at the gate – got their partner to phone the Sun and claim they were a tourist, and had witnessed the confrontation, in which they claimed Andrew Mitchell had delivered a “foul-mouthed rant”. This was a lie. Neither the officer nor their partner had been anywhere near the gate at the time. The Metropolitan Police have also uncovered evidence this officer was in direct contact with PC Keith Wallis, who you will recall made up a similar story about witnessing the incident with his nephew, who he also claimed was a tourist.

Now, it’s important to stress that all of the officers in question are contesting the charges of gross misconduct. But the fact is this is the evidence that has been uncovered by the Metropolitan Police.

The CPS ruled there was no conspiracy against Andrew Mitchell. The line was that Keith Wallis was merely a “lone wolf”. Yet the Metropolitan Police itself now believes there was direct contact between Wallis and two fellow officers. And there is also now direct evidence that one of the officers at the gate – who didn’t even hear the altercation – disseminated the email that was used to try to damn the former chief whip.

Legally, I’m told the CPS came to the view that all of the above does not constitute “a conspiracy”. But it does provide evidence of “collusion”.

All of which raises a number of serious issues. At PC Wallis's trial, the Judge, based on the evidence presented to him, stated that Wallis “did not know any of the Officers concerned in the incident” and “you did not conspire with anyone to do anything”.

It also raises serious questions for the CPS, who formally told Andrew Mitchell “he [Wallis] acted alone apart from telling one Officer the next day that he was present during the incident”.

And it raises serious questions for Metropolitan Police commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe who at the start of the affair expressed full confidence in his officers.

Baroness Lawrence says she doesn’t trust the Metropolitan Police. And it’s clear from what I learned yesterday the Metropolitan Police can no longer trust the Metropolitan Police either.